This paper discusses the historical debate on difference and equality and on the changes undergone by gender relations under the impact of feminism, of the masculinity crisis and of the other economic, cultural and social changes currently underway. It is based on gender studies which seek to understand the processes of production of new forms of male and female subjectivities which are distant from the traditional gender stereotypes. The paper concludes that these changes point at the concrete possibility of building more democratic gender relations, an ideal which has been pursued since the beginning of the modern era for marriage and family, and whose cornerstones are the right to equality and the respect of difference.
difference; equality; gender relations